One Way of Coping With Divorce: Laugh!

Editor’s note: I can’t remember how I found out about Ending Up, Paige Morrow Kimball’s short film about coping with divorce, but what I do remember is that when I watched the trailer, I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my cheeks. It put me in a great mood, entertained me, inspired me and gave me hope.

I don’t know Kimball personally, but I feel a connection. We are alike. Very much. Kimball isn’t divorced, but she was a child of divorce and so she gets it. One of our similarities is that we both find that laughter can be a great source of therapy in coping not just with divorce, but with anything! We are also both Huffington Post contributors, both around the same age (I think) and are both moms.

So, after seeing the trailer to Ending Up, I contacted Kimball and asked her to guest post. I then watched the entire 15 minute movie, Ending Up and have to say, it was adorable! It had everything in it when it comes to coping with divorce: drama, humor, lough out loud moments, reality, sadness, inspiration, girlfriend bonding, loss, heartfelt moments and an uplifting ending. Here is Kimball’s post, followed by a link to Ending Up (with a free trailer), which if you are even the slightest bit depressed will have you smiling, laughing, giggling and inspired in about 2 minutes!

Here is Paige’s article:

As year 13 of my marriage approached I was as shocked as anyone that I was actuallyin a relationship that had lasted this long. The closest contender was a boyfriend who I was with when I was 24 for a meager 18 months. Clearly, I wasn’t a long-term commitment kind-of-gal before I met my husband, which may have had something to do with the fact that I was a child of double divorce. I was 12 when my mother divorced her second husband (who I was very fond of) and I never saw him again. Ever. You don’t have to be Freud to figure out that I may have had a fear or two about long-term commitments with men.

And here I was, in year 13 of my marriage (the year that my parents split up) wondering how it would feel if my husband and I were to call it quits now that our lives were impossibly intertwined with two kids, a mortgage and a joint bank account. There were things I simply didn’t know how to do any more because I was so used to him. My tool kit (girlie as it was) had long-since vanished from the everything-drawer and taking out the garbage was simply no longer in my repertoire.

So I imagined, what if we got divorced…what would I do? How would I start over again? Who would lift my bags off the airport luggage carousel? I tried to imagine what it would feel like the first time my husband picked the kids up for the weekend in his new shiny convertible, with his new shiny girlfriend. And I played out these thoughts, working out my fears all the way into a screenplay and then the movie, Ending Up.

Which was actually a lot more expensive than therapy. Go figure.

Ending Up is about the ironies of divorce, the power of true friendship and starting over in the middle. I wanted to make a movie that would give people hope who were going through a loss (in this case, divorce) that if they could get to the other side of it, life would be good again. I’ve always marveled at the people who cope with tough times through laughter. The film is a comedy, reflecting my belief that if you can keep laughing, you can get through anything. There’s also humor and deep irony in the very nature of divorce – going from being intimate family members to total strangers. If you’d like to watch the 15 minute film, it’s now available in it’s entirety: on paigemorrowkimball.com

Thanks Paige! Note what she wrote: “The film is a comedy, reflecting my belief that if you can keep laughing, you can get through anything.” Sound familiar? In “About Divorced Girl Smiling,” I wrote: “As I’ve gotten older, I realize that we can find humor in just about anything. Even if it’s the saddest thing in the world, I think it’s okay to laugh about it!” Paige and I are on the same page!

Paige Morrow Kimball is a Writer, Director, Producer and Actor. Film writing & directing credits include: OMG! I’m Knocked Up, Slipped, Ending Up and the upcoming Play Date. Documentary and reality credits include: HBO’s Project Greenlight, Fox’s Boot Camp, ABC’sThe Oprah Winfrey Show, 16 Days of Glory, Lillehammer and many more. Acting credits include: Come Simi, Dude Where’s My Chutzpah?, The Anniversary, and lots more. I’m a contributor to The Huffington Post, Women’s Voices for Change, and a member of the Directors Guild of America. And I’m a Mom to two adorable girls. Learn more:
www.paigemorrowkimball.com

Watch the movie